HEADQUARTERS SECOND ARMY CORPS,
July 1, 1864- 1 p.m.

Brigadier General S WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Army of the Potomac:

GENERAL: An article in the New York Tribune of the 27th instant [June 27], purporting to have been written at the headquarters of General Butler, has just been shown to me. I inclose it for the examination of the major-general commanding the army.* I have marked the paragraphs to which I desire to call his attention, and request that he may take measures to discover the author of the false and injurious statements referred to, and that the author thereof may be punished in such a manner that the fact will be likely to have as great a circulation as the slanders which he has uttered.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WINF'D S. HANCOCK,

Major-General, Commanding Second Army Corps.

[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
July 1, 1864.

Respectfully forwarded for the action of the lieutenant-general commanding.

It is understood the correspondent referred to is named Kent, and is within the control of the major-general commanding the Department of Virginia and North Carolina. I respectfully request he be directed either to order him out of the lines of the army, or to turn him over to the provost-marshal-general of this army. His article is full of malicious falsehoods, and he should be severely punished for it.

GEO. G. MEADE,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY DETACHMENT,
July 1, 1864.

Lieutenant-Colonel WALKER,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

COLONEL: A reliable scout has just returned, who has been within sight of the Halifax road (running parallel with railroad, about 150 yards west of it), about one-quarter of a mile south of the Gurley house. He saw a column of infantry moving toward Petersburg. He could not tell whether he saw the head of the column or not. He heard before arriving in sight of the column the rumbling of wheels, which he supposed to be wagons or artillery. The part of the column which he saw occupied half an hour in passing him, and was followed by about a squadron of cavalry.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. M. BRYAN, JR.,

Colonel, Commanding Detachment Cavalry.

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*Pencil note on original says "No inclosure received at Washington."

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